Realizations
by indigo.lizzy
Summary: Temari reminisces on when she and her siblings were little. Find out what happens when she convinces Gaara to wear a pair of fox ears...twice! Slight OOC and lots of sibling fluff, you have been warned.


Summary: Temari has lived with her two younger brothers in a house, not a home. She had known her brothers to be just what they are, siblings, never friends. She had suppressed thoughts of having a real family since she was young, but sometimes, memories find their way back to you and you begin to realize that what you could be wishing for could be right in front of you, all you have to do is know where to look for it.

Realizations

A blond-haired kunoichi sat on one of Suna's famous sand dunes, her aqua-colored eyes searching the sky effortlessly for the many scattered clouds that shielded her from the sun's hot rays. The striking blonde had been training with her younger brother the whole morning and half of the afternoon under the threatening insistence, she may add, of their _sensei_. Shutting her eyes for a second, she threw all her cares to the wind that carelessly caressed her face as she watched the sunset serenely from on of her favorite hideouts in Suna. These secluded places were her sanctuaries at times when life became a bit too tiresome for her to handle. Right now, she just watched the sun fall beneath the horizon as a chilling wind blew strongly around her, whipping her clothes about and tugging at the loose strands of golden hair that escaped her four pigtails.

The sands around swirled restlessly all around her and she chanced to look at two sharply rounded sand hills which somewhat resembled a pair of fox ears. A smile tugged at the corners of Temari's lips as she remembered a particular memory concerning her youngest brother back when all three siblings were still quite young…

Flashback

"Come on, Gaara!" a 5-year-old girl said to her youngest brother. Her face held an extremely exasperated expression and her dirty blonde hair, held loosely in four pigtails at the back of her head, was wobbling dangerously out of its pigtails as she struggled with her brother.

"Uh-uh." The little boy bluntly refused, shaking his little red-haired head and crossing his arms over his chest. His older sister was trying to get him to wear a pair of extremely silly fox ears and he absolutely hated being dressed up, even if it was technically just his head that she and his older brother were playing with.

"Yeah, Gaara, wear it!" his older brother said, grinning as he held out the headband to his younger brother. "You'll look so cute in it!"

"No." 3-year-old Gaara said.

"Come on, you know you want to, besides it won't hurt you to wear it for a teeny tiny minute so why don't you just let me and Kankuro put it on your head…now!" Temari said as she jumped quickly and restrained him quite effectively while Kankuro struggled to put the headband on Gaara's small head.

"There, all done!" Kankuro said, stepping back to look at his masterpiece, which constituted of Gaara who immediately stopped flailing around as he tried to take off the fox ears. "See? That didn't hurt much, did it, now?"

Temari grinned broadly as she surveyed her littlest brother, the fox ears now securely on his head. Then, Gaara, in a futile attempt to take the silly headband off, began shaking his head vigorously. It was then, in the middle of a ridiculous head bang, that Gaara heard the first bout of laughter from none other that his older brother.

Kankuro was smiling stupidly now as he tried in vain to control his laughter. He clamped a hand over his mouth to muffle his audible chuckles though his shoulders were still shaking uncontrollably. 4-year-old Kankuro stumbled backwards while he tried shoving his knuckles in his mouth and fell flat on his butt on the ground. Gaara crinkled his brow in a frown as he watched Kankuro topple down on all fours, fists beating the ground in a last attempt not to laugh out loud. Before Gaara or anyone else could say a word and cause any trouble, Temari intervened just in time.

"Gaara, you look adorable!" she exclaimed gaily. "I just have to take a picture of this…." She readied her ever-present camera while Gaara took on a face of total horror.

"No! Uh-uh, I don't want-!" Gaara protested but Kankuro cut in.

"Pictures are a great idea, Temari! Besides, Gaara, when you grow bigger, this will be just a funny childhood experience!" Kankuro said as he stood up from his position on the ground.

"No, I don't want any-!" Gaara yelled but his cry went unnoticed as Kankuro cut in again.

"Oh, come on, Gaara!! Hey, let's make it a group picture, Temari!" Kankuro said as Gaara shook his head wildly in a new attempt to take off the headband before his older sister could take a picture. To Gaara's further horror, Temari nodded and set the timer on the camera before putting it on an elevated spot.

"Get ready now!" the blonde girl said as she ran back towards her brothers.

"Alright!! Get ready to smile, Gaara!" Kankuro joked, putting an arm around Gaara to stop the redhead from getting away.

"Humph!" Gaara said, sulking and fidgeting ever so slightly.

"Okay, okay, smile!" Temari said as the camera flashed.

End Flashback

Temari blinked in the darkness. She had been so caught up on her memories that she completely lost track of her surroundings, something that could possibly get her killed in the future as a ninja. She had to remember not to do that if she wanted to stay alive.

Shaking her head, she stood up from where she sat and looked up at the starry sky. It had been five years since that incident had happened, she mused. Turning around, she headed back to the house.

Once she reached her room, she began going through her things as she searched for a particular picture that was taken when she and her brothers were much younger. She had placed her large fan by her bed gently and was now crouched among the many boxes of childhood memoirs she secretly kept under her bed. Leafing through the worn pages of an old diary she finally found what she was looking for.

"Here it is!" she said triumphantly. "I can't believe it's still here..."

She gazed fondly at the picture featuring her, Kankuro and Gaara together when they were younger. The fox ears were sitting atop Gaara's crimson red hair with Kankuro putting an arm around his shoulders while young Temari placed a hand on Gaara's head and another arm around Kankuro. Gourd, fan nor puppet could be seen in the picture, as they were too young to wield any weapons back then.

"After all this time, we've really grown since then." she said, fingering the picture. Just then, Kankuro entered her room noisily.

"Hey, Temari, can we train again? I already asked Baki-sensei and he agreed that we could stay out late, besides, I think I'm getting the hang of this new puppet." He said, carrying his newly acquired puppet in his arms like a fragile china doll. He stopped at the doorway, noticing something in his sister's hands.

"Hey, what's that you've got there?" he asked, stepping inside Temari's room and carefully sat his puppet on her bed before snatching the picture out of her hands.

"Kankuro, I was looking at that! And how many times do I have to tell you not to put your filthy puppets on my bed?" she asked, exasperated.

"Yeah, yeah, move over." Kankuro said, sitting beside her on the bed anyway. "When was this taken? I don't recall this…where were we and what were we doing here?"

"It was a long time ago, I don't think you'd still remember it since you were around four back then." Temari replied, making space on the bed for him reluctantly.

"Oh…. Hey, what's that on Gaara's head? Are those what I think they are?" he asked, already grinning.

"Fox ears. We managed to get it on him." Temari answered, smiling.

"Whoa, no way, we did that?" he asked, a look of pure glee on his face. He then dissipated in a gale of laughter reminiscent of how he laughed because of the same reason the picture was originally taken.

"Even I can't believe we pulled it off! Hmmm…" Temari trailed off, deep in thought.

"What are you thinking?" Kankuro asked, abruptly stopping in his near-insane laughter and frowning ever so slightly. Temari had that look that spelled danger to him. "Uh-oh, I do not like where this is going."

"Where is what going?" Temari asked nonchalantly as she snapped out of her thoughts. "I was just wondering how Gaara would look like now if he wears those fox ears again."

Kankuro gaped at her with wide eyes. Temari, noticing his expression, merely shrugged it off and began rummaging through the open boxes again.

"Are you crazy? Have you permanently gone insane?! How can you even think that? And what in Kami-sama's sake are you doing?" Kankuro asked, annoyed that she wasn't listening to him.

"Hang on a sec, it _must_ be here somewhere…where is that thing?" she muttered to herself as she looked in box after box of childhood treasures. "Yes, I found it!"

She emerged from the growing pile of open boxes with the exact same pair of fox ears that she had used on Gaara. Kankuro stared at it open-mouthed.

"Is that what I think it is? You kept that the whole time, huh?" he said, raising his gaze from the headband in her sister's outstretched hand to her face. Temari just smiled and started for the door.

"Wait! Temari, where are you going? You aren't gonna do what I think you're gonna do, are you?" Kankuro asked, a shocked expression on his face but nonetheless following his sister out.

With the picture in one hand and the headband in the other, Temari made her way to Gaara's office. When they reached it, Kankuro made a wild attempt at stopping her by lunging for the doorknob and blocking her way. He shook his head firmly and stood his ground even after Temari glared at him. He would not let his sister walk blindly into danger that easily, not on his life. But Temari, as always, was persistent.

"Kankuro, move it." Temari said, crossing her arms in front of her chest and tapping her foot impatiently. "Do I have to repeat what I said?"

"I heard you, Temari, but I am not going to just let you march into that room where unknown danger awaits and do what I think you're about to do." Kankuro said firmly, meeting Temari's glare bravely. Although he cursed her exceptional strength as he was shoved out of the way.

At the rumble outside his door, Gaara went to see what was the matter. It was obviously Kankuro and Temari, as no one else was capable of making so much noise, but what could they possibly want? They probably wanted to train but why bother inviting him? They both knew well that his sand would activate immediately at the first sign of an attack. And they also knew he didn't want to be disturbed at all when it came to his privacy.

So what did they want from him? Temari rarely visited him nowadays and he doubted she'd start doing so out of the blue, Kankuro on the other hand promptly avoided his room at all times. Well, there was one way to find out what was going on and that was to open the door.

"What do you want?" Gaara asked rather impatiently as he opened the door after Temari knocked on it twice. Kankuro flinched at his tone of voice as he stood up from the floor where Temari apparently pushed him.

"Hey, Gaara, I just wanted to show you something. You might not remember it but here." Temari said, seemingly oblivious to his brash manner as she showed him the picture of the three siblings when they were younger. Temari smiled as he took the picture from her fingers to take a closer look at it.

"Hmm, this is me…what am I wearing on my head?" he asked monotonously and Temari held up the headband in answer to his question. "Hn."

"Do you want it? I mean, technically both the picture and the headband are yours." Temari said, extending the fox ears towards him. Gaara hesitantly took it from her outstretched hand but not before eyeing it warily.

"Hn." The eight-year-old redhead said as he stepped back inside his room. He stopped before closing it though to look at his sister and at that, Temari couldn't help herself; she flung her arms around Gaara for a quick sisterly hug.

"T-Temari!" Kankuro gasped, eyes wide with surprise and shock. He began sputtering inaudibly as he stood rooted to the spot.

Temari felt Gaara stiffen visibly in her arms and wondered herself what she was doing. Wasn't this supposed to be extremely dangerous? Why was she _hugging _Gaara? It was _Gaara _for Kami-sama's sake! But the answer was pretty clear to her, no matter how terrified she was of her brother and no matter how much she blamed him for their mother's death, she still loved him regardless of what he did or didn't do. It didn't matter to her that he had a demon sealed within him, what mattered most was that he was her brother and they were family whether they like it or not. She smiled at the realization before letting go of Gaara, who, unknown to her, had relaxed slightly in her arms. As she stepped back slowly, the look in his eyes told her that deep down inside, he felt the same way too no matter how emotionless he may seem.

As his sister hugged him, Gaara's eyes widened just a fraction of a crack. To say he was surprised would be an understatement. Not only was he completely shocked and utterly stupefied, he had absolutely no idea why she would be hugging him at the moment.

"Ahehe, sorry 'bout that; it was a spur of the moment thing." She explained once she released him.

"Hn…. I wonder…" he trailed off, looking at the headband closely and greatly surprising his older siblings by actually putting them on. "How does it look?"

Temari's eyes widened a bit, then her face broke off into a gleeful smile. "Actually, it looks good on you." she said, chuckling a bit.

"Yeah, it kind of suits you, Gaara." Kankuro put in, smiling as he stood beside Temari at the doorway directly adjacent to his little brother.

If both looked closely enough, they would notice that the corners of Gaara's mouth were very slightly, almost undetectably, turned upward. Temari's keen eyes caught the ghost of the smile and it was then that she first realized how much both her brothers really meant to her. True, they had fierce arguments and insurmountable differences including some unbelievable quirks but beneath all that they were and will always be family. Like it or not, she was stuck with them forever, so she might as well make the ride smoother. She didn't know that she would soon go to great extents just for their small malfunctioning family to work together and rise above life's troubles. But in the meantime, she would enjoy in every way she can her current carefree life with her brothers before those troubles catch up to them.


End file.
